My Pinoy Kitchen/Photographies

My friend phoned me the other day, she told me she needed to take the day off for she has the LBM syndrome. Well I thought at the beginning she was talking about something else well apparently she had two job interviews that day. It is true that its been seven years that she's been working on this company. She was a hardworking and loyal employee but despite that in the span of seven years she never had any raise nor promotion. I think she was really fed up.

I think it is normal for people to look on the other side of the fence where it always look greener to really quantify if we are really happy where we are. She passed the two jobs and were just weighing things out which one will fit her the most. I am truly glad for her for finding a new job is never easy.As I was thinking about her luck and I thought why not try and go over the job ads this weekend maybe there's something better waiting for me too. After all what would it cost me aside from skipping work and buying newspaper. Who knows my dream job might be waiting for me to be taken.

This past weeks I have tons of work. Time is passing by so swiftly that when I look at my watch its already twelve noon and time to eat. I normally eat the rest of the dinner but my appetite has increased tremendously this past few days. I guess it's stress. Anyhow food always excite me. The fact that I did not prepare anything for today I'm wondering what can I eat and where. And when I am in a hurry like this nothing beats a good sandwich. I was wondering who invented sandwiches..praise him and I would like to kiss him. I couldn't think of anything else better to eat when we are in a hurry like this. Practicality wise, normally well balanced in nutrition and is always so good. I am having turkey sandwich with lots of salad and tomatoes for lunch. How about you have you decided yet?

Oopps, after some googling up, the word sandwich came to be used around 1762. And If you love Star Trek you might enjoy this scene I found in You tube eating sandwich. Enjoy!

Everytime I go back from work, I go straight to the kitchen and open our fridge. This is my usual routine at around seven in evening. I would check what menu I could prepare for our dinner. When it is the start of the month, I could make lots of fabulous dishes but as day advance my meager resources are pushing me to use my imagination.

Having a fridge with lots of fresh things inside I guess is the dream of any house-wife. But more often we are confronted with the reality that the fridge starts to get empty as our stomach but we need to cook something to please the palate of our household. I knew a friend who turns off practically her fridge because it is always empty. With the increasing prices of electricty I somehow understand her point of view.

I have a cabbage and some bean sprouts left at the bottom part of my fridge, I guess I will have to cook some chopseuy tonight.

I don't know. It's one thing so hard for me to handle. One baggage I cannot stand to carry is handling one's frustration.

Everytime I think of all the frustrations that I have, little and big things I wasn't able to do. Or failures that I had in the past. I can't help but feel self pity. When moments like this happen. I stay long on my shower and let my tears flow as the water flow. I'm not getting any younger but the way I'm handling frustration is still way my league. I hope I will become a much stronger person to be able to deal with it next time it comes.

Sorry I can't tell what causing me this pain. Sorry for being so frustrated. :-(

Definitely not. Today we are celebrating the 55th Wedding Anniversary of my in laws. A lasting love that gave them 8 beautiful children, 15 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren. The couple love so much travelling and the sea. So what better way to celebrate their anniversary in this oceanic blue theme dinner. We feasted on lots of grilled fish, sea-foods and a triple layer cake. Yummy!

I got a phone call from my sister yesterday complaining about her neighbors. Apparently they have a neighbor that's passing their time in her house whenever she is not around. The neighbors were apparently friends of their nanny. Since it's kinda hard to find a good nanny they are trying to be pleasant with her. The neighbors started by chatting with their nanny. But eventually they would eat, sleep and watch television at her house everytime she is not there.

The worst is that this weekend she caught them playing cards in front of the kids. My sister is in dilemna to scold her nanny as she is worried something bad will happen to her baby if she does that. In the first place it was her too nice attitude to them that gave them the go signal to be too comfortable at her place. Lucky for me I dont have "parasite" neighbors like that. And you how will you deal with it?

My husband was thinking of going back into the workforce. Of course I have always been there to back him up, but if ever this will push through we will definitely be needing a good nanny.

Nanny no matter how sexy or pretty she can be is not really a criteria for us. What we only need is someone we could trust our beautiful children. Someone who is strong and intelligent enough to make decisions when it is important and someone that will love our kids. Well, it might be hard afterall. I have plenty of friends who manages to work full-time by engaging a nanny. But I have also seen how often they changed their nannies in years time. One stole, one got pregnant, one forgot their daughter in her school and other stories hard to imagine.

As I was chatting with my sister the other day, she told me that her officemate's baby died of drowning in a swimming pool after the nanny forgot about her when she took something from the kitchen. Taking care of babies requires a lot of responsibility and attention. The problem I see here most often, people employ nannies from neighbors or friends friend. Without even checking if they background and experience in raising and taking care of kids. We are partly to be blame too, don't we?

As I am typing this post, I don't know how on earth I will go back home. I was just advised that there will be a transportation strike, "again".

I understand perfectly the need for jeepney drivers to express their discontentment about this rising price of oil barrels but what about us, commuters? We do have right to express to our feelings and opinions over this matter. Sometimes it makes you feel like the children in the middle of battling parents for custody. Government and jeepney drivers have their word to say everytime there is an issue that affects them. But in the end, it is always the commuter that gets the blow. I'm just part of those thousands of commuters who just like to earn decently our money. But today, I am preparing my rubber shoes for my day might be long. It might be a long walk back home.

I have been seeing a lot of PayPerPost members blog advertising blogging around the blogosphere world. And to be honest about it, I had this growing curiosity on the question Do they really earn from blogging? How on earth would somebody pay someone for blogging on topics this someone loves? Shall I try it or not?

I started indexing the PPP site on my favourites blog advertising a few months back. But of course I was always stopped by the fact that I might not have the time or it might not work. A good friend of mine who is a PPP member, blog advertising however, assured me that I could manage my time, no pressure. Then I had this urge to browse the site few weeks ago. But that lazy browsing ended up with me signing up, registering my blog.. and some 3 working days checking my emails for a possible good news.

When I saw the subject Your blog has been approved, I excitedly logged in and checked for some opportunities. Wow, there are just a lot of opportunities waiting to be grabbed and reviewed. And since with PayPerPost, members are encouraged to talk about the things they love, blog advertisingI don’t think there are better ways to motivate and inspire aspiring members but to write with great enthusiasm.

After breakfast, as normal routine we talk on how we would spend our upcoming vacation. And it always end up we like opposite things. I want beach and sand while he wants mountain and calmness. Then he asked me what will he do with the bangus fish we are planning to eat for dinner. I wanted it fried while he wanted it in sinigang. Small issues like that piled up and it exploded into a heavy fight.

I knew I read somewhere it is healty for couples to have fight. Sometimes I ask how possible it is that we are so different. As normal routine we would shout until our efforts cant anymore. I would go out and he would enter in our room. And afterwards we would try to reconcile.

Let's stop pretending. It is indeed possible to hate people we love right?

My bestfriend and I grew up in the same neighborhood. Despite that I am older by three or more years we still grew up very close to each other. We have lots of funny and unforgettable moments together. She's been there on all the ups and downs of my life. She played her part of being a shoulder to cry on or somebody to pat your back when you did something great. We are really best of friends.

But, hating her has been a part of our relationship. She hated me too I know. It is so hard to quantify how we grew up to have this sort of competition among us. I had my hair cut short, she had hers few days after. I enrolled in a swimming class she claimed she did too. I said that I have a crush on the new neighbor she told me she was the first one to notice him. When we were teenagers, I could understand this behavior. But now, being both happily married and have kids I sometimes feel I have a shadow trying to imitate all my moves in life. I got married, she did too. I had kids, she did too. Sometimes it is already too tiring, but that's how I become used to our love-hate relationship. Is she jealous of me, or I am her idol. Either way I hate this all these years. Yesterday, I had the courage to tell her how I feel. It shocked her. I still don't have any words from her. Hoping she could forgive me for my honesty.

When I opened my yahoo account yesterday, I was devastated seeing the news on the side bar. The truth about all this, the reason I rarely open news or watch television is to spare me from all this bad news going on around the world.

I know that not by avoiding them bad things don't happen anymore. But yesterday I could n't helped but saddened by the news of a strong cyclone killing about ten thousand people in Myanmar. It is a country not far from Philippines and what happened there could happen too in our country. Today I will say my little prayer for all the victims of typhoon. I hope you will take time out too to pause and remember there bereaved souls.

It would probably the bogging question every spectator of the American political arena that is set to be on fire this coming election. It could be interesting to imagine how American decisions in the international scene would change having considered this one tiny detail, who could be the next American President?

I am never or rarely interested in politics. As I always feel that entertainment and politics are the same in many ways. But this recent race to White house between this two concurrents really amazes me. Sometimes its Barack who is winning then the next day its Hilary. Actors and politicians alike have made their choices already. With only few months away left on this much awaited election, have you made your choice already?

Our country maybe far from United States but each Americans decision on this matter will definitely affect every lives on earth.

Taking breakfast is essential. In fact it is the most important meal of the day because it breaks the fast that we did, meaning not having to eat for a long time.

At home, we see to it, that we take our breakfast seriously. Fried rice, fried egg or scrambled, fried fish or fried meat. The smell in our kitchen every morning definitely attracts all the bypassers as our fried rice is definitely delicious. I got my recipe from my mom. However, the grand debate at home normally starts with having vinegar with fried fish or having it with diced tomatoes. I grew up where vinegar is venerated like god. My sister would even drink it. Probably because my grandmom makes there own vinegar and is definitely uncomparable to the one we find commercially marketed. On the other hand, my huby battles that diced tomatoes are the best with fried fishes. He hates the smell of vinegar in the morning arguing that tomatoes is much healthier. He maybe right on this two aspects but saltiness of our dried fishes is never as good eaten with vinegar. It always is a grand debate at home every morning until one day a neighbor dropped by. Couldn't stand the heated debate that sparks on whether vinegar or tomatoes is better. She enterend in our kitchen put the chopped tomatoes in the vinegar and added up some chilis and presto our argument is over ever since. Bon appetit!

I remember when I was a kid I grew up in a place where almost all our neighbors were selling halo-halo come summer. And everytime I do errand and receive money for doing so I immediately compensate myself by buying a Halo-halo. The more there is milk and sweet stuffs inside the better. It was small taste of heaven for a little girl like me.

Recently I had a meet up with one of my former classmates. She suggested to meet up at Razon's eatery in Makati Greenbelt. Completely, neophyte to this place I never knew that this place offers what everybody is claiming to be the best Halo-Halo in town. And I tell you when I had my serving it only took me 3 minutes to finish it off. There was less sweet stuff inside only sweetened bananas and macapuno but the shaved ice was really creamy. I'm sure I will definitely invite my hubby and kids to eat here this weekend. Go check out spiderman eating halo-halo that I found on the YOu tube. Funny or not it's you to decide.

Ok, I am neither Kapuso nor Kapamilya. But when I heard recently that one of my favorite Pinoy comics super-hero will be on our boob tube I cannot help but only feel excitement.

I would admit that I grew up in the era were reading comics was our favorite past time. I still remember those days where we used to rent comics for twenty five or fifty centavos. Wakasan, Happy comics are some of my favorites. It was a distant past where reading brings us to emotions unexplainable. Too bad that with the recent improvements in our lives we have forgotten about this times. Comics industry died down during the Marshall Law in the 70's. It tried so much to make a healty rebound but still people opt to watch rather than to read. I would say we got lazier. Anyways, avid fan of Dyesebel or not it is worth supporting Pinoy creations that who knows might be known globally in the future. Enjoy some Dyesebel teaser I found on the net.

For the first time, my boss requested me to accompany her on her business trip in Pangasinan for two days.

I know that my husband hated taking care of the house alone with our children but I didn't hesitated accepting this opportunity. I have always loved travelling. Much when you will be paid to do it. It was my frustration to work as a flight stewardess way back. I thought that it could be the ideal job that would allow me to travel everywhere and anywhere. But of course that is before I tasted my first immersion on this job long time ago on a small scaled domestic plane. Our training showed me that we are doing more a servants like job than a prestigious profession I have always dreamed of. Anyways, I have never been to Pangasinan so I was really excited. We stayed overnight in a three star hotel who's facilities are quite rustic but the service was quite acceptable. Unfortunately, my boss who grew up abroad preferred to eat international cuisine more than the specialty of the region. So I didn't think twice then to buy all Pangasinan goodies I know I will miss. I also too the liberty of buying bangus and most specially lots of Pangasinan bagoong.

Much to my surprise when I arrived home, my bag was leaking and smells horrible. Apparently, one of the bottles of bagoong that I bought messed up my stuffs. :-(, Lessons learned know how to pack them clean and nice to avoid such incident. Now Im spending my hours cleaning my stuffs instead of feasting on all these Pangasinan goodies I bought.